Superdrive vs. Firewire DVD burner

[LethalWolfe]

Subject pretty much says it all. I was planning on getting the Superdrive, but a friend made the off hand comment that I should "downgrade" to the combo drive (I'm lookin' at the dual gig G4) and buy a firewire DVD burner. His reasoning was that when faster, and hopefully industry standard (yes, I know DVD-R alread worx on most set-top players), burners come out I can just sell the "old" burner, and put that money towards a new burner. I see his logic. Is there any reason why I should get a Superdrive and not a combo drive and seperate firewire DVD burner?


TIA,
Lethal

P.S. After I buy my G4 I promise I'll stop asking so many darn questions.

 

[arn]

Re: Superdrive vs. Firewire DVD burner

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Subject pretty much says it all. I was planning on getting the Superdrive, but a friend made the off hand comment that I should "downgrade" to the combo drive (I'm lookin' at the dual gig G4) and buy a firewire DVD burner. His reasoning was that when faster, and hopefully industry standard (yes, I know DVD-R alread worx on most set-top players), burners come out I can just sell the "old" burner, and put that money towards a new burner. I see his logic. Is there any reason why I should get a Superdrive and not a combo drive and seperate firewire DVD burner?

The biggest reason is that Apple's iDVD software only works with an internal Superdrive.

If you plan on using DVD Studio Pro ... I believe it will work with external DVD drives.

arn

 

[moby1]

I'd go with the SuperDrive

The SuperDrive on my iMac burns a DVD at 2x in about 25 minutes. That's pretty fast.
Remember too that just 'cause a drive burns at a faster rate doesn't mean that it burns reliably at that rate...

 

[moby1]

also...

When I burned a DVD-RW it ONLY let me burn it at 1x.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Hmm... that's a good point 'bout iDVD. Well, by the time I can afford DVD studio pro I'm sure that the next gen (or 2) of DVD burners will be out. So I'll go w/the superdrive and iDVD for now.


Lethal

 

[Choppaface]

personally I'd go for an external. the combo drives tend to have a slower CD read rate, and I find myself usually putting my CD-ROMs in my 32x read burner instead of my DVD-RAM drive which reads CDs at 24x I believe

 

[LethalWolfe]

The ability to brun DVDs is more important to me than CD read and/or burning speeds. This baby is gonna be my editing workstation (I have a PC for everything else). And since I don't have an extra grand laying around for DVD studio pro I'll have to settle for iDVD which can't burn over firewire.


Lethal